<p>Valley Park School District is comprised of approximately 1,000 K-12 students located in suburban St. Louis County, MO. The district has buildings all on one campus. The ability to communicate and respond to issues district-wide is essential to the safety and security of students and staff, and to continuity of operations.</p><p>As national school safety has become an increasing concern, the district conducted an assessment to re-evaluate policies, procedures, and resources related to security or natural disaster situations. One of the mission-critical tools that can make a huge impact on safety is the use of district telephones, and the Unified Communications features built into the ShoreTel system implemented by the district.</p><p>One of the greatest needs of the modern school is communication and coordination during a security breach or natural disaster. Unified Communications provide a set of tools, including instant messaging, presence display, follow-me features, call control, intercom and paging, and fax to desktop. These resources are built into the ShoreTel system and can be easily deployed to meet specific areas of need or concern. Among these many features, two specific resources that have been deployed by Valley Park School District are Event Notifications and the Paging System.</p><p>One problem the district wanted to address was how to notify district personnel in the event that a 9-1-1 call was placed on campus. When a district phone makes a call to 9-1-1, using the event notifications feature within the ShoreTel system an event notification alert can be emailed to select personnel indicating the time the call was made, the location of the phone making the call, and the user who made the call based on the phone presence. This email aids in the shared knowledge of the situation, provides administration the opportunity to investigate the situation immediately, and gives on-site personnel the ability to relay information to first responders as they arrive on the scene.</p><p><a href="http://www.telecomreseller.com/2014/03/17/improving-school-safety-with-unified-communications/">Keep reading...</a></p>